Pen Mightier Than Passion

　　Angry or upset? Try picking up a pen. According to psychologist Matthew Lieberman, most people don't think of writing as a way to calm down. "When you look at the brain, it looks a whole lot like emotion regulation is going on when people put feelings into words." Lieberman spoke on February 14th at the AAAS annual meeting.

　　Lieberman scanned subjects' brains as they looked at pictures of people with either positive or negative facial expressions. They were sometimes asked to label the emotion—which lit up the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with self-control. "Only when people are putting the feeling state into words do we see activity in this right prefrontal region. And what we've also seen is the more that region is activated, the less activity you see in a variety of limbic regions that are typically associated with affective or emotional processing."

　　But be warned, labeling your feelings dampens all emotional responses. Even the happy ones. How do I love thee? Well, maybe I shouldn't count the ways.

　　文字压倒激情

　　愤怒还是悲伤？试试拿起笔来。心理学家Matthew Lieberman称，大多数人并不认为写作是让人静下心来的一种办法。Lieberman 在2月14日的美国科学促进会（AAAS）年会上说：“通过观测大脑发现，当人们把情感诉诸笔端的时候，大脑的很多情感控制都在进行。”

　　Lieberman 让受测试者观看一些人的照片，这些照片上的人的面部表情要么是积极，要么是消极的，同时他对这些受测试者的大脑进行扫描。Lieberman有时候问要求这些受测试者对所看到的照片上这些人的情绪进行说明——这时候他们大脑中与自我控制相关的右腹侧前额叶（right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex）被激活。Lieberman说：“只有当人们把感觉用文字表达出来的时候，我们才能观察到在这个右侧前额叶区域的脑活动。而且我们还观察到，右侧前额叶区域越活跃，那么各种边缘区的脑活动就越少，这些边缘区通常与情感和情绪过程相关联。”

　　但是要注意的一点是，把感觉诉诸笔端会削弱所有的情绪反应，即使是那些高兴的反应。我是怎样地爱你？或许我不会逐一细算。